1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary operation unit that is capable of reducing operation sounds and relates to an electronic apparatus having the rotary operation unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera is generally configured to receive and photoelectrically convert a photographic light flux by an imaging device such as a CCD sensor or a CMOS sensor, convert an electrical signal output from the imaging device into image data, and store the image data into a recording medium such as a memory card. The image pickup apparatus has rotary operation members for setting photographing conditions and other information.
By operating the rotary operation members, the user can set modes and commands. In a photographing standby state, the user can change setting values of shutter speed and aperture value.
Such a rotary operation member is used in an information setting apparatus for a camera. An information setting apparatus disclosed e.g. in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-87622 has a mechanism where a click ball is pressed by a click spring against concaves and convexes formed at an outer periphery of a rotatable click plate, thereby providing a click feeling to improve operability and operation feeling.
In recent years, there has been increasing the need for a moving-image photographing function in electronic image pickup apparatuses such as digital single-lens reflex cameras. There has also been demanded a reduction of operation sounds of operation member which are produced at the time of moving-image photographing. On this point, the information setting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-87622 poses a problem that when the click plate is operated, the click spring and the click ball exposed inside the camera collide with each other to produce large operation sounds.